NEW DELHI: Rhea Chakraborty‘s lawyer Satish Maneshinde has responded to the Central Bureau of Investigation‘s (CBI) closure report in actor Sushant Singh Rajput‘s death case, maintaining his client’s innocence in the matter.
The CBI submitted its closure report to a Mumbai court on Saturday, nearly five years after Rajput’s death in June 2020.
The CBI’s decision comes after investigating the circumstances surrounding the 34-year-old actor’s death at his Bandra residence, where he was found dead on June 14, 2020. The postmortem report conducted at Mumbai’s Cooper Hospital had determined asphyxia as the cause of death.
“I have been saying from the first day that Rhea Chakraborty had nothing to do with Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. Still, on 27th July 2020, someone filed a complaint against her and that is why the investigation started. After that, we approached the Supreme Court,” said Maneshinde.
“He died on 14th June, Maharashtra Police registered a case and treated it as a suicide case and were investigating it. The DCP of Mumbai Police, Bandra Zone at that time, after a thorough investigation, had concluded that Rhea Chakraborty had nothing to do with it. Rhea Chakraborty’s statement was also taken at that time…,” Maneshinde elaborated.
According to Maneshinde, Chakraborty had left Rajput’s residence on June 8, 2020, due to conflicts over his drug use and medication habits. “After that, Sushant Singh Rajput asked her brother to take her out of his house…From that day, there was no contact between Rhea and Sushant,” he explained.
“After that, it was revealed that Sushant had committed suicide and at that time, he had 2-3 servants and flatmates in his house. Still, Sushant’s family dragged Rhea Chakraborty into this case and in Patna they filed a case and told that Rhea Chakraborty had misappropriated his property worth Rs 15 crores. Because of that Supreme Court transferred the case to CBI. CBI has continuously interrogated Rhea Chakraborty and her family members and filed this report after 4 and a half years but I have been saying from the first day that Rhea Chakraborty had no connection with this…It was a pure case of suicide,” Maneshinde stated.
The case gained significant attention when Rajput’s family filed a complaint in Patna, alleging Chakraborty had misappropriated Rs 15 crore of his property. This led to the Supreme Court transferring the investigation to the CBI.
The Maharashtra Police had initially registered the case as a suicide and conducted preliminary investigations before the case was transferred to the CBI.